frosty

Reid was excellent in the second half of the 05/06 season to help us finish 6th, he just seemed to drive powerfully from box to box and scored a cracker at Sunderland after a surge forward from our own half. Just checked his Wikipedia and in seasons 06/07, 08/09 and 09/10 he played 3, 4 and 4 Premier League games for us, so as you say he was just dogged with injuries unfortunately.

Followed by ‘red ass’ if you scored ten past the keeper? Used to be tense times if you were in net and had let in eight or nine.....

I love that Bellamy is in there despite only playing one season here. Shows just how good he was. His performances in the second half of that season, once he'd got over some injuries he had in the first half, were absolutely outstanding at times.

Do you think? Personally I think that job was Kean’s for as long as he wanted it. He wasn’t being judged on results. If they didn’t sack him after consecutive home defeats that December to West Brom and Bolton, leaving us with 10 points from 17 games, I doubt they’d have got rid after a defeat at Old Trafford. If however that’s true and he was on the brink before we went to Anfield and Old Trafford that Christmas, then yeah I wish we’d have got thumped in them both.

The Birmingham game is a good shout. After frustrations in the Jan transfer window, I think Hughes was casting glances elsewhere in the second half of 07/08, but yeah maybe another UEFA Cup campaign could have convinced him. Beating Leverkusen to get into the last 16 would have been quality - and something we’re not gonna get a chance to do for ages now ? the second leg against Celtic is another one too.

That's a good shout. Spurs away that season too, they were 4th going into the final day yet we played extremely well at White Hart Lane, unfortunately losing 2-3.

I saw on Twitter earlier that it's 13 years to the day since we played so well against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi at Old Trafford but lost in extra time. It would have been brilliant to win that and play in the first FA Cup final at the new Wembley, plus the teams we had between 2005 and 2008 were good enough to have won something. That got me thinking - if you could change one result in Rovers' history, what would it be? That game would definitely be up there for me. Arsenal FA Cup semi-final in 2005 too probably. That was the height of the 'Bully Boys' tag and knocking Wenger and Arsenal out would have been so sweet. Both times we'd have played United in the final and we had a decent record against them under Hughes. Others that come to mind include the home game against the Dingles in 2014. Awful. There wasn't just 'one' result in our 2012 and 2017 relegations that cost us, so hard to pick from those seasons. Further down the list, but maybe Millwall at home in the FA Cup quarter final replay? 2012/13, like the season before it, was an absolutely rotten time to be a Rover (apart from K**n leaving), but an FA Cup semi v Wigan at Wembley would have been good, and winnable. They're only from my time going to Rovers, so looking forward to seeing some older games mentioned.

For a spell when we were struggling under Lambert, it felt like Marshall was our biggest threat - from right back. Certainly in terms of who was most likely to create a chance or come up with something unexpected. He did look good at right back I thought, he had a good touch and close control, and picked out some decent passes with him being able to see the whole pitch in front of him. Ultimately though he's done barely anything since (and he was very inconsistent here) which speaks volumes really.

Adam Henley was another one who burst onto the scene, playing very well away at Liverpool and United over Christmas the season we went down as a 17 year old. Salgado was just about still here at the time and he thought a lot of him, which speaks volumes. Never properly kicked on after that and, despite occasional good performances such as playing very well against Raheem Sterling in the FA Cup quarter final games, he's now in League Two at Bradford.

That's absolutely awful. RIP.

Interesting - can’t remember the last time there was hot water in the JW upper toilets towards Blackburn End either....

Parma! Will be a while before Palermo are back in Serie A. If it does get postponed surely the whole league will have to get postponed too...

Are their stadiums just over a third full?

Jeff Kenna? Saw a question on Twitter a few days ago asking which two players were at Rovers for both the 95 title win and 2002 League Cup win. I’d have never thought Kenna, thought he left well before 2002, but turns out he played one game in that cup run.

Amoruso, forgot about him but the sight of him trailing behind a striker through on goal (their third in the first leg) was a very a familiar sight that season. Genclerbirligi. Larissa. We certainly had some odd European ties and defeats. Thankfully when I think back of our European adventures in the 2000s it’s usually Salzburg, Wisla Krakow, Feyenoord etc that come to mind.

Going back many decades but John Charles at Juventus is supposed to be one of the most successful British players to go abroad and probably the best export to Italy. There was an influx late 80s/early 90s when Serie A was the strongest league around, and also British clubs had been banned from Europe late 80s. Gazza at Lazio but also Ince at Inter, and random ones such as David Platt popping up Bari.

I doubt that’d be realistic. If they go down he’d be crucial for them next season. If they stay up he’d stay. And if he bags a few goals between now and the end of the season or has a good Euro’s, someone at a higher level than us might take a punt on him.

This season it is, but that one team haven’t won the league for thirty years. It was even more of a one team league when United were dominating year after year. Even when we were last in, the top 4 was pretty much a closed shop, you’ve got Leicester, Wolves, Sheff Utd fighting for that now. Don’t think what’s happening in the title race would concern us much anyway. I’m desperate for us to get there because history shows we belong there, both in terms of years spent in the top flight and trophies won. We should be so proud of that. Also, playing in the Premier League = signing better players, more chance of going deep into a cup competition, much bigger crowds at Ewood and that ‘big match feel’ which has been pretty much non-existent for a decade. Teams in mid-table in the PL might not have much to play for but I’d much rather be mid-table PL in front of over 20k at Ewood than mid-table Championship in front of 12k like we have been for a lot of the decade. Cannot wait until we’re back. It will happen one day....

Glad Gallagher scored in his natural position - great ball from Nyambe - but the ball bounced off him to give Swansea possession for their goal. Would swap Rothwell and Armstrong and give that a go. Don’t think we’re getting enough from Armstrong in his current position.

Reminds me of us in 12/13 a bit. After Appleton’s honeymoon period we were just behind Brighton in 6th, that was in February. Then we completely fell away and didn’t get going again until after we fell into the bottom three April time ish. Thoroughly miserable season.

Some of the replies to Graham's Instagram post are scary too - I've seen Gallagher called, among other things, 'amazing', 'a legend' and 'unreal' ?. Thankfully a decent number of other commenters, those that have actually read the article, have their head screwed on.

I know what you’re getting at but Stoke have lost 19 games this season (only Luton have lost more). Swansea have lost 10.

I imagine Barcelona will get through having got a score draw away from home. If Napoli had nicked a win it would have been different. Never know though. Juventus are probably more likely to go out than Barça, given how poor they’ve been for a while now. All isn’t well and Sarri had a pop at the players last night. That said, would still expect them to go through too.

It's not mentioned in this article, but in Sven's autobiography from a few years ago he said he asked Uncle Jack if he could bring Roberto Mancini with him. He'd have been on big wages but was available for nothing in terms of the transfer fee. Uncle Jack wasn't convinced and blocked any potential deal. Sven said he was having second thoughts about joining us after that. Then the call from Lazio came and off he went.

Was bouncing off the wall when we were 2-0 up so only natural to feel disappointed at not going on to win. Cannot believe he gave their penalty. Have to win the next two home games, can’t settle for anything less.